15. The Everfree: Invasion
Metroid Equis
Chapter 15
The Everfree: Invasion
There are many natural and wondrous sights to behold on Equis, ranging from beautiful waterfalls made entirely of liquid rainbow, to vast canyons and oceans that span the lush planet. However, none really hold a candle to how the whole planet looks from one location: space. Specifically, just at the planets atmospheric periphery. These beauties were completely forsaken by Ridley as he stood on his chamber’s perch, gazing out the enormous glass pane and projecting his cold stare onto the planet below him. His bionic, orange eyes with pinprick pupils delicately traced the curvature of the planet and searched for any sign of extreme Phazon corruption, or the Hunter… neither of which he could see from this high up and he very well knew that his ‘search’ would bear no fruits.
Regardless, it gave the Pirate Commander something to do; something to occupy his time while he awaited final reports from Logistics.
Aran… I know you’re down there somewhere. Among the thriving civilization, you lay in wait… in defense of this pitiful planet. And I know just how to draw you out…
The planet provided a plethora of test subjects for new Phazon experiments… especially the native inhabitants; which scouts were reporting were equine in nature and very intelligent.
Apparently many were quite powerful as well. Stealth units who arrived about a day in advance reported a few casualties from ponies who defended themselves with an entity known colloquially as ‘magic.’ Ridley was a tad excited to hear this news, as he could only wonder what Phazon could do to maximize this potential and possibly integrate this ability into Pirate weapon systems. The possibilities were endless, really.
As well, he hadn’t had a good slaughter in a while… not since the days of Zebes and K2-L.
“Lord Ridley,” a voice sounded off in his radio.
“Yes?”
“We have determined with reasonable degree of accuracy the location of the Phazon strike, including corrupted areas which have been quarantined and abandoned by the equine civilization. As well, we have determined the location of the capital city of this particular nation. All ground troops are ready to launch planet-side.”
“Very well. Dispatch what you need. Divide our forces as the local commanders see fit between the north and the capital. I’ll support and lead what I am able. Put down any resistance immediately,” Ridley ordered.
“Shall we take civilian ponies as prisoners and test subjects?”
“Yes. Take what we need, terminate what we don’t. Since this pathetic race seems to have control over an energy anomaly running through their bodies, they may not be useless after all.”
“It shall be done, Lord Ridley. It will almost be time for you to deploy. Shall we test out your cybernetics?” the Pirate Officer suggested. Ridley stretched his large wingspan backwards and twisted in both directions to loosen his joints up. He then dropped to all fours.
“I suppose so. Let’s get this over with… I want to get planet-side already.”
“Yes sir. Be advised, opening the front port!” the unknown officer spoke once more. Soon, an alarm sounded in Ridley’s lair and the front end of the glass pane opened up to the vacuum of subspace.
“As with last time, your cybernetic enhancements to your lungs will allow you to survive in space and water environments without air. As well, without air, your wings would be useless. They are still energized as they were on Tallon IV. All your vitals are in peak condition and all mechanized parts are functioning optimally. You’re cleared to leave, Lord Ridley.”
The dragon spread his wings and flapped once, letting the vacuum take him into space and out of the ship, giving a single traditional screech as he exited. As his flapping soon became useless, he initiated power into his wings and they became energized, glowing luminously golden as he turned and performed many aerial acrobatics between the pirate warships and squadrons of fighters heading planet-side.
“Everything looks normal, Lord Ridley. We have deployed dummy targets between the ship formations. Your usual ranged weapons of high-grade plasma beams and plasma bombs were restored and made more lethal. Go ahead and destroy the targets, sir.”
The floating objects between the warships looked like little satellites and Ridley immediately swooped in for the kill. Doing a barrel roll, the first two targets didn’t stand a chance as he dropped two bombs from his mouth as he flew over, annihilating the first targets. Banking up and right, he let loose a constant stream of his plasma beam from his mouth, taking four more targets with him. This process continued as he advanced towards the rear of the ‘canal’ created by the ships. Ridley gave another roar of victory before swooping into the last two targets and piercing them both with his razor-sharp tail that could shear most metals.
“Nice work, my Lord. You even beat your last record!”
“Good… knew I wouldn’t be that rusty.”
“We have established a foothold base days before in one of the large forests of the planet in the specific nation of Equestria. Local data refers to it as the ‘Everfree Forest.’ I’ve uploaded the location to your internal Global Positioning Module,” the Officer stated. Ridley gave another typical screech.
“Very well. I’ll oversee operations down there,” Ridley replied as he set course for the Everfree Forest and got ready to pierce the Equisian atmosphere.
“Yes sir!”
And Ridley was off. His wings lost their energy luster as he successfully entered the atmosphere and was able to rely on his more natural wing flapping, his silhouette getting lost in the cloud coverage.
Royal guards were bustling all over the castle with the light of recent events. With Equestria in immediate danger from foreign invaders, it was first priority to wake the princesses (if necessary) and get orders from them. Two guards raced to the Lunar quadrant of the castle and straight to the bedchambers of the Princess of the Night. Right as they planted a hoof on the door, it burst open, throwing them both back, and revealing a stoic-faced Princess Luna in her normal regalia. She spotted the two stunned guards writhing a bit on the ground.
“Excellent! You two, with me, I want updates now!” Luna sternly spoke as she began walking down the corridor. The two officers shook it off and joined her in step.
“Your Highness, Equestria is in the beginning process of being invaded. The beings the Hunter had warned us about have unfortunately arrived. Evacuation processes have started for the cities under immediate threat from the hovering warships but we need further orders from you, as Princess Celestia is overseeing the evacuation of Ponyville and its subsequent transition into a military installation,” the guard on her right informed.
“Very well then. Thank you for the update. Return to your commanding officers and prepare for deployment to assist with evacuation and defensive maneuvers. As well, find the Captain and tell him to execute The Order. He shall know what I mean,” Luna spoke with perfect professionalism.
“It shall be done. What about you, Your Majesty?”
“I need to find Samus and coordinate a few things with her.”
“Princess Celestia has informed us that she has taken flight over the Everfree upon discovery of the Invader’s arrival,” the second officer informed.
“Makes no difference; I’ll find her myself. Pass along that the military leaders may command to their greatest judgment right now. Celestia will be overseeing evacuation operations and I’ll keep an eye on things militarily related once Samus is accounted for. She’ll do her own thing, but I need to know exactly the plan so we can hopefully stave off this invasion. Go!” she ordered. The guards nodded and took off flying down the corridor. Luna was alone now, and she had time to think for a few moments. She couldn’t talk to Samus mentally, as she didn’t want to inject or impose any more magic into her form in light of recent events. As well, an unforeseen side effect of the Elements destroyed the magical link between their minds… most likely for the better anyway.
However, with some magical ability in Samus originating from Luna herself, the Night Princess would be able to locate her via the same technique present in Samus’s Aura Visor. With that, Luna blinked hard once and opened her eyes again, revealing bright blue orbs of her augmented vision before taking off out of one of the windows and flying straight for the Everfree at speeds that would impress Rainbow Dash.
The vast tranquility of space was snuffed out when over a dozen warships exited through ruptures in space time… although these were different. They were plated in smooth, sloped, and angular metals which reflected light and shined proudly from the nearest stars. The largest ship was emblazoned with the mark of the Galactic Federation and identification G.F.S. Vogl, an Olympus-Class battleship and capital ship. This was easily identifiable as the fleet’s flagship due to its enormous size, and considering any of the other ships lacked the distinctive downward-spire. The rest of the accompanying ships were Griffin-class destroyers and a few transport vessels. Stiletto fighters buzzed around in an organized fashion, patrolling ahead and in between the large vessels themselves.
Equis, the 4th Fleet’s destination, was no more than about two days travel via hyperdrive, which was excellent news. The news of being able to finally stretch and get some (hopefully) fresh air was quite well received amongst the troops. None needed it more than the 14th Infantry’s Crusader Squad: an odd, small few of Federation Marines.
The four of them were kicking back in one of the many common rooms on the Vogl. Fortunately they were able to get some time to themselves and just… ‘chill,’ for lack of better words.
The one reclining lazily on the couch was Pfc. Nathan Krandor, a soldier as normal as they came… somewhat. Sitting there without his armor, he had an average height of about 5’9”, modestly built with brown hair and green eyes. His fair complexion blanched with small scars on his face and minor stubble gave the 24-year old Marine a more traditional, rugged look, yet he still maintained his youthful personality.
The only one in full combat armor, including helmet was recently promoted Sgt. Sydney Exeter… and if that last name sounds familiar there’s good reason. Her brother, Cpt. A.C. Exeter, was the commanding officer of the troopers that landed on Aether, and consequently slaughtered by the Dark Splinters. The others hadn’t seen Sydney take her armor off since news got to her about her brother’s fate, about two weeks prior. She was currently staring out of one of the windows into space. She could best be described as a collected and sarcastic individual with a fun side to her, but definitely not as sprite as Nathan might be on occasion. Of course, certain events put a dampener on that for her.
“How’re you holdin’ up, Syd?” Nathan asked with genuine concern, craning his neck to look at the fully armored female trooper.
“As well as anyone who lost someone close to them can hold,” she replied coolly. “…the same as the million other times you’ve asked me,” she concluded. Nathan threw his hands up and turned around. Sydney was normally not snappy at all but the sudden loss thrust upon her left her not knowing how to properly deal at the time.
“Jeez… forgive me for caring,” he muttered under his breath. She heard him.
“My condition isn’t going to change five minutes after you ask me the first time. Don’t even go near the ‘knight in shining armor’ thought,” she followed up. At that moment another person entered the room, face buried in sifting paperwork.
“More like ‘asshat in tin-foil…’ as if our armor can actually stop anything the Pirates throw at us,” the male voice spoke as he folded the papers and held them between two fingers behind his back. This was Cpt. Jacob Dittmar, a man in his early thirties who had joined the GFMC when he was merely eighteen. He had a long history of successful missions in full companies but his ultimate strength laid in micromanaging smaller squads and fire teams, which was what he was placed in charge of currently. The reputation of the blonde-haired, brown-eyed captain was one of business. He was known for getting the job done with excellent efficiency, but during combat operations or high threat levels he was known for not really helping to ease the stress.
Either way, his little fire team contained his greatest friends in the galaxy at the time, and they all knew that, no matter how much he got on their nerves.
“…So Nathan, just leave her alone. And you Sydney, enough with the attitude.”
“Please and THANK YOU!” the last soul in the room spoke out in relief, revealing the soft features of her olive-toned complexioned face as she put her book down. She was Pfc. Arianna Guerrera, a fairly new addition to the GFMC relative to the others. She was often more silent than Sydney, considering Sydney could have an extraordinarily fun, girly side to her. Arianna could be found reading a book or her tablet for the most part, and she wouldn’t often start the conversations. However, she was more than fine with conversing with others. She was also known to have a very fragile temper, which contributed greatly to her ferociousness in firefights. As well, there were a few reports of friendly Marines getting sent to the medical wing due to getting beaten the shit out of for saying something wrong to her.
“Got something to say, Ari?” Sydney shot back.
“No, I really don’t, unless you wanna give me something to say.”
“ENOUGH!” Nathan finally shouted. “We’re all supposed to be goddamn friends here. How about we act like it?”
“He’s right. Enough of this. We’re due to be sent planet-side as soon as we arrive to our destination so some fresh air will calm our nerves,” Jake admitted. Sydney became silent once more and she turned her attention to the stars again.
“First ones into combat against the Pirates as usual?” Arianna asked.
“Surprisingly no. We’re to help with first contact procedures with the natives, as well as link up with Samus Aran, which Command considered a treat for us for our hard work as of late. So, less than two days, guys… just hold it together until then,” he informed. Arianna and Nathan nodded and went back to their activities while the Captain made his way to Sydney.
“Hey… how long have you been in that armor?” he asked softly.
“Does it matter?” Syd replied.
“Yeah, it’s only going to make you feel more trapped. Come on, Syd… at least take the helmet off.”
Sydney only looked at him through her faceplate and after what seemed like several minutes, she conceded and removed the helmet, which came apart from the rest of the armor with a resounding ‘hiss’ of pressure equalization. The removal of her head-gear revealed amber, shoulder-length hair which was a little matted with sweat. Her blue eyes shown of sorrow and loss, not to mention the dark tear stains that rested on her tanned skin complexion. She breathed a little easier after her actions.
“Better?”
“Yeah…” she affirmed softly. Jake rested his hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
“Go back to your quarters, take a hot shower, and rest. You need it… and don’t try to lie to me that you’ve been sleeping at all,” he ordered gently, fully understanding the pain that was involved with losing someone. She didn’t protest in words.
“We’re gonna need you in decent shape for when we get to Equis, alright?” he spoke with the slightest joking tone, treading careful waters. She nodded. “Go.”
And with that she was off. The three of them saw her out of the room before they all turned back to each other.
“40 hours, guys,” Jake mentioned one more time. The two lightly nodded and ‘saluted’ in understanding while the Captain joined Nathan on the couch, opting to lie down a bit, the three settling into comfortable silence as the fleet drifted ever closer to Equis.
The Hunter Class gunship drifted fairly low over the Everfree to avoid being seen by any passing Pirate fighters that were undoubtedly being launched at the moment. Samus herself was suspended in her ship’s repair field, letting the various tools fix up whatever damage was taken as a result of Luna. Specialized welders fixed up the enormous crack in her visor and directed beam repair got her Space Jump boosters back online. All other nicks, dents, and scrapes were easily dealt with in a timely manner.
“Pirate fighters approaching your position. Immediate evasion recommended.”
Samus took the advice immediately and brought her ship down as best she could under the canopy of the Everfree and engaged the static cloaking device. Gazing upward, the fighters came into view and lazily drifted over her position, but headed straight on a controlled descent deep in the Everfree. Samus’s fears were then confirmed that the Pirates did have another hidden base somewhere in the forest.
Samus removed helmet and buried her face in her armored hand.
“Oh god why…”
I’m tired of this forest. I don’t want to be in this DAMN forest!
Nevertheless she had her work cut out for her. A forward base could easily turn into a staging base for a ground assault… too close to Ponyville and consequently the elements of harmony. Sighing once more, she let her ship down completely, parked it, cloaked it, and exited out of the top hatch.
The forest was much denser around these parts, considering she was at least fifteen miles from Ponyville by her estimates. With all systems nominal, Samus jumped and landed on the Earth, having her ship estimate the direction of this Pirate Base, which it soon uploaded to her suit’s map.
Opening her map, her systems labeled an estimate about three miles from her position… not really a trek she wanted to take but she had little choice. Her hope was that upon infiltrating the Pirate base, she could find any good information that could lead to their ultimate plans of operation on Equis. Wasting no time, she began a brisk walk in the direction her map, well… mapped out for her.
While the rain started up again, the first mile was fairly quiet. Nothing unusual was seen but as Samus trekked closer, she started to feel uneasy. This usually came about when she felt that she wasn’t alone anymore… something else was in her vicinity. She raised her cannon a bit more and looked around for anything that could be out of the ordinary as she slowly marched onward, properly using the large trees for cover. Motion sensor wasn’t picking anything up, so that was good news. Nevertheless, Samus learned to rely less on her motion sensor, as she was certain Space Pirate tech had advanced to the point where troops could stealth their movements from her sensors.
Of course, that thought made her be extra careful. There would undoubtedly be patrols around the area, even if the new station was set up probably only a couple of days ago at best. Another hour and a half later had her trek three and a half miles. She dodged anything that looked remotely suspicious and even found a couple of infrared trip wires that were of Pirate origin. They were easily disabled with a few tweaks to her grapple beam, allowing Samus to pass before they came back online.
Nearing her target even more, she heard a couple twigs snap and she immediately stopped in her tracks, stacking up to the nearest tree and obscuring her form completely… listening. Her hand rested on top of her cannon, ready to strike at millisecond’s notice. Samus made sure to control her breathing in this unfamiliar environment and, with great practice over the years, steadied her rhythm and waited for whatever was out there to pass.
A few more steps were heard close to her position until her motion sensor picked up something on the opposite side of the huge trunk Samus was stacking up on. She heard a couple of low pitched breaths and a familiar grunting sound. Waiting for the aggressor to pass, Samus soon realized that it wasn’t going anywhere… merely standing watch.
Oh come on… Seriously?
This made her job harder, and Samus knew she wouldn’t be able to sneak by the Space Pirate without alerting him and, consequently, having the entire base be put on alert. It wasn’t the time for that. So, she knew that she’d have to take him out. A lone Space Pirate would be little issue for the long-time soldier, but any length of combat time would allow her adversary to communicate back to base. It would have to be a silent assassination… and she knew just what to do.
Her plan required her removing her suit, but noise was generated when she did so, so that wasn’t viable just yet. Samus noticed, however, that thunder was being produced throughout the rain-storm… thunder loud enough to conceal her suit removal. Waiting patiently for the next clap, she saw lightning flash and sure enough, thunder struck. She immediately removed her suit and the Pirate was none the wiser. Putting her plan into action, she reached down on her Zero Suit-clad leg and grasped something that she had picked up before she left the ship: a large energy knife.
When she was battling Pirates in melee combat while heading to her ship the first time to repair her suit, she ended up yanking the energy scythe off one of her adversaries to use in combat. She had kept the item and was able to use her tools to cut it down to size while utilizing the weapon’s energy core all the same. Thus her energy knife was born, courtesy of her decent construction/engineering skills she picked up over the years.
She grasped the orange hued blade by its hilt and bent down, picking up a rock and tossing it up and down in her hand for a few turns. She peeked out slightly and found the Pirate Trooper facing perpendicular to her position, which was good enough for her. She turned around the other side of the tree and heaved the rock into one of the far off trees, generating a large ‘crack!’ and definitely garnering the Trooper’s attention. With him facing completely away from her, Samus sprang into action and launched herself high, landing on the Pirate’s back, covering his mouth with her hands, and driving the energy scythe into his neck before dragging it in a slicing motion.
The Pirate fell to his knees, gagging only a little bit, before Samus released him to the ground. She wiped some of the blood off her hands and sheathed her blade once more, equipping her suit and treading forward to her destination.
As the final life drained from the Pirate’s eyes, distinct radio chatter could be heard:
“Unit 59H7, report current position.”
“Unit 59H7, report!”
“Unit 59H7, respond!”
.
.
Samus had bought herself more stealth time than the other options she had would have given her. It would only be a matter of time before a team was sent to investigate the ‘disappearance’ of one of their patrol units. Her hope was that they’d dismiss the disappearance, at first, as an encounter with wildlife gone wrong.
Whatever the case, the periphery of the forest was coming into view and as she peeked out from behind one of the final trees, she saw the fruits of her travel: a very large installation currently under construction: A large command center stood above all the buildings as more corridors were being added by stationary cranes. From what Samus could see, there were barracks, a medical wing, research and development, essentially everything for a long-standing Space Pirate base to function. A new squad of fighters and transports had just arrived, as well as a few Pirate skiffs, letting troops and supplies disembark.
From what Samus could see, her best bet would be to find a way to the command center. There, she could gather any valuable information before attempting to lay waste to the base. In the end, this outpost wouldn’t be allowed to exist… not by her watch.
She gazed around for a suitable entry point. She couldn’t readily just walk into the open with all these troops directly across from her. However, further investigation, including using an optical zoom function on her visor, showed a small, uncompleted portion of a main artery with large piping that had yet to be finished. Scans indicated her morph ball could easily traverse the piping, which would take her somewhere inside the base free of enemy eyes… for now.
I’d think the Pirates would stop creating shafts of perfect size for my Morph Module…
Then again why am I complaining?
Figuring that was her best bet, she morphed down and used her boost ball function to quickly roll over the open terrain and directly into the piping… a tense ten seconds Samus even admitted.
However, a Trooper patrol managed to lay eyes on her morph ball head towards the piping. Before the soldier could do anything, a blue magical aura encased his mouth and forced his startled form to the ground, unable to move. The midnight-blue Princess of the Night emerged from the foliage, eyes like bright blue orbs and with a blade conjured of pure magic, before she plunged it into the downed Trooper once, silencing him. She removed her makeshift magic sword and it disappeared as she hunched down low, also witnessing Samus’s form fully enter the pipes.
Luna’s mind, however, was more concerned with this base that was built. It was obvious that it wasn’t just started today… so she concluded Samus’s fears were correct the entire time. Luna’s search for the Hunter was not difficult. Her aura lead the Princess right to her. Her curiosity of these invaders was enormous right now, and she felt that she should meet up with Samus on the inside. After all, Luna thought that if she could help eliminate one outpost of the invaders, it would be less work to be done and potentially less of her subjects would be killed. Before Luna could make a move, large flapping sounds could be heard, and as a consequence she stayed very still in the brush. All the Pirate troops stopped what they were doing to view the spectacle: which looked like a large, metal-plated black dragon land on the open ground.
All the pirates saluted this one dragon… which Luna was studying greatly. She had never seen any dragon like this… one which was much smaller than the native dragons on her planet and was made of skin, metal, and machine. What looked like officers of the troops were speaking to this new and larger arrival, and it in turn replied back to them… both in languages Luna couldn’t understand, although to be fair the dragon’s rebuttals sounded more like low-key screeches, grunts, and growls. Either way… something about this dragon sent a shiver down her spine and gave Luna an enormous feeling of apprehension; something which was not done easily.
Seeing as they were occupied, Luna engaged an invisibility spell and made her way to one of the sides of the buildings linking up with the very large command center. She generated a portal on the wall and stepped into it, which allowed her to step inside the building unabated. Her current position looked like some sort of storage room, which was filled with unfamiliar technology. The Night Princess disengaged her invisibility, leaving her in her normal regalia, and poked around, admittedly awed by the advanced (she could only assume) weaponry that was being stored.
Our race doesn’t stand a chance technologically against these invaders… only magic is on our side.
Shaking off her curiosity, she knew she had to find Samus. Looking through her augmented vision, the Hunter was still in her Morph Ball form going through the network of piping above and below the corridors, hidden from view. She could easily follow the path that Samus laid out to the best of her ability.
The only exit out of the current room she was in was a large hexagonal door, which was covered by some blue-colored energy. There were no handles or any other type of object that Luna could discern was a method to open. She lightly touched her hoof to the center, the energy field enveloping the tip and causing no discomfort, but only a little tingly feeling. Retracting her hoof, Luna decided to try magic. She charged her horn and fired a single shot of her Night Beam, which ended with the shield deactivating and the door opening. Satisfied with the result, Luna craned her neck out and looked around.
Finding the hallway void of any life, she exited the room fully, having the door close and reactivate behind her. Samus had been moving, so Luna would have her work cut out for her in keeping up. She trot along the hallway until she came to a right turn. The moment she peeked out, she came face to face with a Pirate Trooper. Both of them jumped backwards in complete surprise, which left a corner of the adjacent wall between them. A few (what sounded like) angry growls from the adversary later resulted in the Trooper turning the corner hell bent on attacking, Luna retreating just a little and keeping about 15 feet between the two of them. He fired his weapon directly at Luna, who easily called upon a shield to absorb the impacts. Seeing as she’d have to fight her way to Samus’s position, she sent a large electrical shock straight from her horn into the Pirate Trooper, who convulsed painfully before slumping forward. Her left ear flicked due to a familiar feeling.
“And now, here they come…” Luna spoke to herself.
Suddenly, three bursts of energy shot from the ceiling, surrounding the Princess. In their wake, three more troopers stood up and immediately started attacking. Luna called upon her shield instantly and deflected all their assault cannon fire. As they closed in on her position, they took to melee combat with their energy scythes, swiping and jabbing at Luna, who was evading with very surprising agility. She called upon powerful magic, reared up, and stomped down, initiating a magic shockwave which threw them all back against the walls. Using the room, she equipped her own battle armor and was fully ready to fight. One of the Pirates was recovering and Luna finished him off with three shots from her Night Beam. A second one had recovered and sprung upon her with his blade, but she evaded and encased his head in magic, slamming his face into the wall and letting the trooper slump down before she came down on his back with the full power of her hooves.
The final trooper fired upon Luna’s turned back; whose armor easily deflected the energy projectiles. She jumped around and faced him, sending an electrical shock into the soldier which detonated his weapon’s power core, the explosive force sending his body careening into the wall and bouncing on the ground, lifeless.
Locating Samus’s position once more, Luna chose an identical path which followed the plumbing.
On Samus’s side of things, she wasn’t encountering any resistance. But (due to odd workings of the Morph Ball), Samus was able to see that many of the pirate troopers in the hallways suddenly turn and run somewhere. Lines upon lines of troops were all heading in the same direction. Yeah, it gave the Hunter less potential resistance in her path, but it still made her wonder what the hell was going on. She proceeded onward, her internal map showing that the command center wasn’t far off.
Luna galloped in full battle armor, keeping an eye on Samus’s position and attempting to find her way to her. The corridor ended and she shot the door in front of her, having it open into a four-way hallway. As she walked closer, two Pirate Commandos revealed themselves from both sides of the intersection. Luna charged straight at them as they fired their pulse cannons, returning fire as she ran and absorbing the energy with her magically generated shield. On the Pirate’s ends, it looked like this odd creature encased in armor was going to tackle them, so they braced their forms and blades against her… only to have the alicorn disappear entirely.
Luna reappeared immediately behind the two Commandos, magical blade in the air, and swung it straight into the one on her right: the blade cutting through the Commando’s armor like paper and nearly slicing him in half. The other Commando swung his cannon backwards, decking the Night Princess in the face and making her rear back slightly. Pressing his advantage, he used his boost pack to tackle into her. The two belligerents hit the ground hard and the elite soldier hit his cannon against Luna’s armor-clad face. As the Pirate was about to continue his attack, Luna sent an electrical pulse through her, severely electrocuting her aggressor. She forced him off of her with a hard hoof to the helmet and onto his back. She sprang up and fired four Night Beam rounds into his chest and head, ending him.
Luna craned her head up and augmented her eyes again, searching for the infiltrating Hunter. Samus was stopped by a large network of piping that she had to navigate herself through, so she wasn’t very far off. As she was about to continue, more pirate troopers and Grenadiers appeared in the straight-away in front of her. Luna stacked against the wall adjacent to her enemies as they immediately fired on her.
Not far off, a panel above an arbitrary hallway exploded, letting Samus’s Morph Ball drop onto the floor. She phased back into her standing state only to hear a great volume of weapons fire not far from her position. While she would normally thank her luck and continue onward unabated, something told Samus that she should investigate the disturbance.
These voices in my head suck.
She jogged down the hallway which lead to another perpendicular corridor, so a three-way intersection. Turning right, she found six Pirate Troopers running through a farther-down intersection. Not five seconds later, three Troopers cried out as an explosive force threw them backwards, bodies landing lifeless. Samus sprinted to the end of the hallway right as another trooper crossed into her path. Before the Pirate could even react to the feared Hunter’s presence, the latter activated her speed booster and rammed into him and into the wall, most likely shattering his ribcage.
Turning to where the bodies were thrown back earlier, there was merely a door. Shooting it and opening it, she came into contact with the rear of over a dozen Pirates of three varieties all firing to the same position. As well, the Hunter couldn’t help but notice the body count around the area. Samus couldn’t get too much of a view of what they were shooting at before one of the troopers turned around and spotted her.
Samus drew her cannon lightning-fast and shot a missile straight into his chest. The rest of the Pirates all had their attention turned to Samus, allowing Luna to press an offensive. The Pirates being caught in the middle of the two were systematically cut down by both of the infiltrator’s weapons fire. The last few troops were killed when Luna magically fractured her generated shield and sent the ‘shards’ straight at the enemies, piercing their armor and bodies; they fell back on the floor as the offending shards disappeared. At that moment, Samus laid eyes on the full-body armor clad alicorn.
“L-Luna?!”
The Night Princess magically unequipped her helmet.
“This outpost cannot be allowed to exist this close to the Element bearers,” Luna spoke, walking up to Samus.
“That’s the plan after I extract information… but why are you here and how did you find me?” the latter replied.
“I needed to coordinate defense based on your expertise in dealing with these… Space Pirates? But I was informed that you had already deployed. Nevertheless I needed to find you and since your magic has derivations from mine to some extent, I was able to ‘track’ you. Initially I only needed to share a few words with you but with the discovery of this outpost I feel it is in our best interest to eliminate it completely,” Luna explained, reequipping her helm and obscuring her face.
“Yep. From how you handled all those Pirates I can easily trust you to hold your own, and having some extra firepower won’t be bad in the slightest.”
“I don’t suppose you have a plan on how to deal with our objectives at the moment?” Luna wondered.
“I just might, but we need to get to the Operations Command Center,” Samus nodded and informed.
“Lead the way!”
A few corridors later and dealing with only a few enemy troops, the duo came upon a door with a green hatch cover. Samus had wanted to stop here for a few moments due to an alert on her map as to some acquirable technology. Luna attempted to shoot said door, only to have her shots ricochet.
“What is this sorcery?!” Luna exclaimed. Samus chuckled a bit.
“Stand back…”
Luna did just that as Samus fired a super missile, obliterating the hatch cover and leaving a standard blue door in its wake, which she promptly shot to open.
“My map indicates that this is a reverse-engineering lab. Scans also tell me that reverse-engineered Chozo weaponry exists here…”
“If there is something you wish to acquire I suggest you make it quick. We are nearing the Command Center and I do not wish to be here much longer, considering the entire base knows we’re here,” Luna stoically pointed out.
Samus ignored her as she spotted the object of her search: pure energy taking the form of what looked like Samus’s grapple beam was suspended in a container at the end of the dark room. Walking up to it and shattering the glass, the Hunter ‘grabbed’ the energy and let it flow to her grapple beam, which lit up a few times before dimming.
[Sticky Grapple Acquired!]
[The Grapple Beam is no longer limited to attaching to Grapple Nodes and Magical Magnetic anomalies. The beam may now physically attach itself to any object. Does not replace your magical grip, however.]
Samus tested this out by shooting her Grapple Beam at a piece of metal about a few yards away, having the line successfully attach and retract to her hand. She then magically flung it away.
“That’ll come in very useful actually. Pirate tech isn’t half bad… Let’s be off,” Samus remarked.
The two exited the room and continued onward, having to battle even more Pirates in their way, including an inordinate amount of Grenadiers and Commandos. Any resistance thrown at them was proven to be of little effect against the combined onslaught of the Hunter and Night Princess. Their (often wordless) communication with each other proved very decisive in breaking off engagements with little more than a few singes on armor and minor drainages of energy shielding.
After agonizingly long travels considering the two had to fight their entire way (not to mention the kill-count of at least a hundred and twenty Pirate soldiers), they finally arrived at the command center: an awe-inspiringly large, cylindrical structure containing many consoles surrounding a central pylon, which projected a holographic and three-dimensional map of Planet Equis. The fifteen-minute firefight that ensued with Pirate Commandos had also destroyed a few consoles delegating power to certain parts of the station; including one which completely shut the doors down to the Command Center itself. In short, no one was getting in or out for a good while.
The last Pirate Commando aimed over his cover, only to have a Night Beam round pierce straight through his helmet, throwing his head and body backwards onto the ground.
“Area’s clear,” Samus spoke, waving her cannon around to disperse some of the steam coming off of it.
“Very well. What must we do here?”
“I am going to gather some information first…” Samus replied as she began scanning several of the undamaged information consoles. She was collecting a wealth of information in Pirate Lore, Research and Development, Metroid Containment Protocol, Troop Deployments, et cetera.
Luna was busy studying the large holo-projection of her home planet. It rotated in real time, and it was dotted with several red dots within the nation of Equestria.
“Samus, what do those red dots mean on the planet projection?” Luna asked. Samus looked up and scanned.
“Looks like they’re current or planned base construction sites. Chances are this installation isn’t going to be the only one pretty soon.”
“I was afraid you might say that… do they all have a dragon who visits?” Luna pointed out. Samus stopped what she was doing immediately.
“What did you say…?” Samus asked, not entirely believing she heard right.
“When I arrived after you, before I could follow you a black dragon appeared and landed within the open base grounds. He wasn’t as large as the native dragons on this planet but it was odd… he was also composed of metal and machine… I had never seen anything like it!”
Ridley was here.
Samus stood up and faced Luna. Even behind her visor, the latter could tell Samus had a very… interesting expression on her face. Before Samus could speak, Luna then connected something in her head.
“But… he did look a bit familiar. I felt like I’ve seen some form of his before… possibly in—” her mind stopped right there as she slowly craned her head up and looked at the Hunter.
“…the murderer of your parents…”
“Luna, that dragon… he is known as Ridley. He’s a powerful commander of the Space Pirate military and I’ve fought him on numerous occasions, believing that I have killed him every time. He has survived yet again…” Samus mused.
“We’ll deal with that when necessary, but we’re going to need to find a way to take out this ba—”
Luna was cut off when an enormous explosion rocked them both. Shaking it off, the two looked to find a gaping hole in the top area of the command center. A very chilling and distinct screech sounded off and Luna felt herself blindsided and thrown into the wall, colliding harshly with the metal and falling over twenty feet to the ground.
“AHHH!”
“LUNA!” Samus yelled. Before she could even get to her, he landed straight in her path to the alicorn Princess. The large dragon opened his maw and let out the bone-chilling, high pitched screech straight at his arch-enemy.
The two nemeses stared each other down… Ridley’s piercing stare gazing straight into Samus’s visor as his feet and talons planted firmly into the ground. His wingspan was spread out and his front claws dug into the ground as well. The two simultaneously had the same word run through their minds:
You…!
Samus stood her ground and aimed her cannon straight at his face; the two standing twenty feet from each other. The two said nothing to each other… what could they say at the time? What was there to say? At this point anything would merely seem theatrical and stall the inevitable. However, ironically, only one word each was exchanged between them.
“Ridley,” the Hunter spoke stoically, arm cannon never retracting. In return, one screech/growl was emitted from the space dragon, which her translators fed back to her:
“Samus.”
Ridley smashed his fist into the ground and hunched down, letting out a mighty roar and battle cry towards one he wished he killed so long ago. Samus merely primed a missile in her cannon as she prepared for the next events…
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I must say, I like what you've done with the chapter - especially Luna kicking ass - and look forward to future events with the new characters. One question, though, about Ridley's training course.
Are you sure he did a barrel roll?
cue ridley theme!
Great update!
I really like the bond shared by Samus and Luna in this story.
She's the Princess of the Night, and she sure knows how to fight.
Saw one typo nevertheless good chapter
Should be 'she'
3595863 DONE!:
Y'know, when I found this story it piqued my curiosity, but I wasn't expecting it to actually be so -good!-
Very well written, good job! I got through the first seven chapters in one sitting!
3596182 Its funny, out of all the things from other M, the only thing I really found quite good was Ridley's battle them haha
3596239 Wow! Haha well I'm certainly glad that I've been able to keep you entertained the entire time :)
3596123 Fixed and thank you :)
3595801 Lol yeah I'm pretty sure. The real barrel roll is much more awesome anyways
3597545
I just think of that video now any time anyone mentions barrel rolls in terms of video games.
3597525 I swear, you didn't have a name that I misread as 'flamingwaffle' this morning
I was under the impression that the remains of Ridley from Prime were destroyed after being posessed by an X parasite in Fusion. Fusion takes place between Prime and Echoes, corroborated by Samus' new gunship.
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/590/222/76a.gif
3598758 It actually does not. Fusion is last in the chronology. Here's the real timeline, confirmed by Nintendo: http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Metroid_timeline
Ridley was his true form in Zero Mission but he survived the battle with Samus, albeit in terrible condition. He was rebuilt on Frigate Orpheon where Samus investigated and he left to oversee operations on Tallon IV, where Samus fights him and he falls to his 'death' in the impact crater. He reappears (after this story of course) in Prime 3, and it was confirmed by Nintendo that it was the same incarnation of Ridley, and he also survives Omega Ridley incident. His first true death was in Super Metroid. In Other M, it was revealed that Ridley was cloned from Samus's suit when she was incapacitated, because his genetic material was on her after he died in Super Metroid. When Ridley escaped the battle with samus and encountered the Queen Metroid, he was killed by his life force being drained and his freeze dried corpse was all that remained. This was taken to the BSL lab orbiting SR 388, which was used as a host for the X.
3599064
So basically there's no explanation for why Samus' gunship changes model between Prime and Echoes from her original to the model she replaces her original (which blows up in Fusion) with in Fusion? And she just somehow gets her original back in Fusion?
Oh well.
3599152 Nope. Realize that 'Metroid 4' was considered Metroid Fusion, so Nintendo originally tried to keep a linearity between those games. With the release of the Prime and other installments, that linearity fell apart and reformed itself into what it is today.
3599168
Which is odd since Prime came out first and Fusion had unlockables for it.
3599276 They actually came out the same year not too far apart from each other, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a coincidence. Oh well lol
H hah THAT CLIFFHANGER!!!!!!
3546851
Metroid Prime: Other M...
I just had an aneurysm. Thanks for that.
Luna is so precious... "Do they all have a dragon that visits?" lol
3599152
Samus builds her own ships. The one from the original missions got shot down and was left in Zebes, the one from Prime 1 also got shot down and she only made basic repairs to it to get off planet so it's likely she either built a new one or made modifications for Echoes
"I’d think the Pirates would stop creating shafts of perfect size for my Morph Module…"
Remember, Samus, that Science Team has vapor for brains. Remember when they tried to implement Morph Ball technology? Yeah, I think reminding them of that wouldn't go well.
And so it begins...Samus and Luna vs Ridley! SPARKS WILL FLY AT THIS LOCATION!
Good grief, Luna is SCARY!
samus and ridley are begine to fight but what about luna can she help samus?
3625892 Haha thank you but it really wasn't that. I just made something up to fill a void as the Changelings weren't suspected yet :p
3627854 I have not seen such a successful MP crossover before i am so eager to read this
Metroid Prime is one of my favorite series of all time
3627854 if that wasn't a intended referens, then that is a spot on coincidence because
what you come up with is exactly the goals NOD has and the way you described them is the same way GDI described NOD in every game especially in tiberium wars, at the start of the GDI Campaign.
here is the example.
Theme I listened and re-listened to, non-stop, while reading the parts with Samus and Luna fighting space pirates :
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Music- Space Pirates Battle
"REMEMBER ME?"
holy moley, the federation is actually gonna do something! Also, I look forward to finding out what new upgrades and magic Samus will discover.
How does Ridley conclude that the impact site is in the north?
Ridley: Like Steve the immortal Guard(That one unkillable 'essential' whiterun guard in Skyrim. Rampage long enough and you WILL find him), he doesn't die properly. Unlike Steve, he's actually a threat.
thegond.com/html/space%20pirates%20chilean%20miners_files/1287074771339.jpg
This comic is so old it's practically a relic of the Metroid Fandom.
3631368
For Kane!
*in best RA 1 EVA voice* Reinforcements En Route.